


Death By Either Love or Chopsticks

by WordObsessed



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders
Genre: Human AU, M/M, Sensory Overload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 00:31:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17355560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordObsessed/pseuds/WordObsessed
Summary: Roman has problems with sensory overload. Virgil tries to help his boyfriend as best he can





	Death By Either Love or Chopsticks

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Sort of projecting onto Roman? It's more likely than you'd think. Enjoy some very overwhelmed Roman being comforted by a supportive Virgil

Roman had known that it wasn't going to be a good day ever since he woke up.

The sound in the café was slowly getting louder, even more than usual, and Roman fished his phone out of his pocket for a second to start a playlist.

The half-hidden wireless earbud in his right ear started a steady stream of familiar rhythms that he could focus on in an attempt to seem fine.

He breathed deeply as he prepared drinks, trying not to freeze or stutter too badly.

"Roman?" Virgil said, touching his arm.

Every muscle in his body tensed up,and he almost crushed the styrofoam cup he was holding.

"Sorry, sorry," Virgil recoiled. "You okay?"

"T-t-" Roman motioned to the air around him, cursing his tongue for deciding to not work. "Too m-much."

"You want to take a break?"

Roman nodded, and slipped into the back room. He flipped off the lights, set the volume low on his earbud, and focused on the bass beat.

He started pacing in the dark, mouthing the words even as he ignored them in favor of the underlying music.

After a few minutes of that, he hummed to test out his vocal cords. They had decided to cooperate once again, so hepaused his music and quoted lyrics quietly.

"Dude, weigh the options calmly and be still. Take a moment to think of just flexibility, love, and trust. Just summon strength from within. Don't get hung up on your skin. We laugh and we cry and we break and we make our mistakes. We are victorious, with champagne pouring over us."

He took another deep breath. "You're fine. You're fine," he told himself, imagining it in Virgil's voice, and believing it.

Then he tensed his muscles and relaxed, trying to get the weird combination of hyper energy and tiredness out of his system.

Slipping back into the main area, he whispered a thanks to Virgil and resumed his position.

\------------------------------------

Roman and Virgil were chatting happily, walking through the mall towards the food court to snack on soft pretzel bites.

"We still need to hit a clothing store. I need a new beanie," Virgil reasoned as they worked out how they were going to tackle the half of the mall they hadn't already covered.

"Alright. But we're also stopping at the watch store so I can get Logan's watch fixed before he realizes I broke it," Roman countered.

Virgil nodded. "Deal. Will you order?"

Roman agreed, set his bags down on the seat across from Virgil, and stepped into line.

When he came back with two full cups of pretzel bites, Virgil took one sniff and almost attacked him in an attempt to grab the cup.

"Hey, hey!" Roman protested. "Don't eat my hand in the process!"

"I haven't had these in so long, and they smell so good," Virgil defended.

Roman chuckled. "Geez, V, you're so cute."

"You look quite nice yourself. Now eat," Virgil mumbled through a mouthful of pretzel.

Roman obliged happily, and joined Virgil in stuffing the soft bites of pure heaven into his mouth until Virgil spoke again.

"Anyways, remember that book I was reading? Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe? Well, turns out-"

Roman listened to him happily ramble on about his book, smirking when he thought about how much Logan was rubbing off on him.

But somewhere in the middle of his explanation, every single other conversation going on in the food court suddenly became overly loud. Roman sat straight up, and glanced around, clearly not giving Virgil his full attention.

Virgil stopped talking to look at Roman, who forced his eyes back onto him,

"Sorry. Continue," He apologized.

"What's up?" Virgil asked, stuffing another three pretzel bites into his mouth.

"My ears just did the hyperaware thing. It's like, the switch for intense hearing just flipped on in my brain for some reason."

Virgil hummed. "Interesting."

Roman knew he was filing that information away in the back of his brain for use in his interest in psychology and the wellbeing of Roman.

He sighed. "Honestly, you're amazing. Thanks for putting up with me."

"I could say the same about me," Virgil said. "We're both kind of messed up, huh?"

Roman chuckled and nodded. "I guess, yeah. But we balance each other out pretty nicely."

\----------------------------

Roman was handing out drinks when he was approached by a group of agitated suburban mothers.

"You gave us the wrong orders," One said rudely.

"We're very busy, we don't have time for this," Another interjected, stepping up beside the first

"You should give us a refund and make us the drinks we wanted!" A third woman almost shrieked.

"We want to talk to the manager!" The first one said.

"I'm sorry, there was just a mix-up," Roman said calmly. "We'd be happy to make you another batch of drinks, free of charge."

"And our money back?" Asked the third woman. She was being awfully loud.

"Well, we're giving you the drinks you paid for, but I would be willing to give you a discount. Is that fair?"

"Just let us talk to your manager!"

"Ma'am, I am the manager. And owner, for that matter. I'm the highest person you can talk to."

"Well," the woman turned beet red. "Your coffee shop is terrible!"

"We're never coming back!"

They pressed in towards the counter.

As the women continued to fuss, Roman tried to take a step back, but was blocked by employees rushing behind him.

Oh fuck. They were still screaming, and it was too loud. The lights were getting too bright and he couldn't move.

He froze, and the women protested even more.

"Don't ignore us!"

He tried to stutter out an apology, but his jaw was being even more uncooperative than usual.

But then Virgil saved him. He pushed aside the other employees, and silenced the women with a curt, "Can you be quiet for one second? He's got a medical condition that's making him freeze up like this." He actually wasn't completely sure that Roman's sensory overload was a medical condition, but he was sure it would make the women shut up.

He led Roman out the back door and onto the sidewalk, where it was sprinkling lightly. The cold rain pulled Roman out of his shutdown.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Virgil silenced him with a glare. "Don't you ever apologize. You can't help it that your the chemicals in your brain are probably as fucked up as mine. Just breathe, and I'll go deal with them."

But Roman decided that as long as Virgil was out here with him, he was going to be selfish and let another worker deal with the problem.

He grabbed Virgil's arm and held onto it. Virgil didn't struggle very much, and eventually resigned to holding Roman in a hug as the rain pattered down around them.

Ten minutes later, they walked back in. The women were gone, and the café had seemed to return to normal.

\-----------------------------

"So, Dark Darling, what do you want to do today?" Roman asked Virgil as he bounded down the stairs Saturday morning.

Virgil looked up from his phone, where he had reading through a Tumblr post curiously titled 'Jared Yeets'. Roman decided not to ask.

"How would you feel about a surprise?"

Roman paused fora second, assessing himself. He actually felt really happy and calm. "Of course."

"Sweet. We'll leave around twelve."

Roman nodded, flipping off the TV that was obviously not being watched, and sat down next to Virgil on the couch, nestling his head into the crook of Virgil's neck, scanning the text on his phone.

Later, they hopped into Virgil's car, and drove for about ten minutes until they stopped in the parking lot of a newly opened Chinese restaurant.

Virgil lead Roman in, and the first thing Roman noticed was the lack of silverware. Instead, there were simply chopsticks at each table. It was also a little more open that most Chinese restaurants, as if there had been too much room to fill.

After they got their food, and Roman fiddled with eating his orange chicken with only chopsticks, he finally realized what Virgil was smiling about.

"There isn't any clinking," he noted.

Virgil nodded. "This place doesn't have any regular silverware. Just chopsticks that don't make much of a sound when they hit a plate," he tapped his chopstick against the plate to demonstrate. "I thought since that noise bugged you so much, you'd like it here."

Roman smiled at him. It was true he absolutely couldn't stand that one sound a fork makes when it clinks against the plate. He flinched every time. "Virgil, I swear, you are the most considerate person on this entire earth, and I love you to death."

"It's not a bad way to die," Virgil smirked.

Roman poked him in the arm with a chopstick. "Oh, shut up."


End file.
